Eurasia Channel One

First Channel Eurasia is one of Kazakhstan’s leading national television channels. It began broadcasting on 10 November 1997 as ORT Kazakhstan, was renamed Eurasia on 2 September 2002 and has officially operated under its present name since 1 September 2009. It is operated by the limited liability partnership Eurasia+ORT, 80 per cent of which is held by the Television News Agency (ATN), an entity within the state-controlled Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation group, while Russia’s Channel One holds the remaining 20 per cent. Its schedule combines domestically produced programming with licensed entertainment and fiction content from Russia’s Channel One.

Media assets

Television: First Channel Eurasia

Its current news output includes Basty Zhangalyqtar and Glavnye Novosti, its principal Kazakh and Russian-language news programmes. Its current information and analytical output also includes Zań men el, ASAŪ jañalyqtar, Parlament Online and Analitika, alongside the socio-political talk show Govorim o glavnom and the investigative programme Anyqtaymyz.

The channel remains a major national broadcaster, although its weekly position fluctuates. It ranked first nationally in the week of 13 to 19 July 2026 with an audience share of 11.24 per cent, and sixth in the week of 17 to 23 August with 8.39 per cent.

The channel’s broadcasting was temporarily interrupted on 5 January 2022 during the nationwide unrest.

Ownership and governance

First Channel Eurasia is operated by the limited liability partnership Eurasia+ORT. Eighty per cent is held by the Television News Agency (ATN), an entity within the Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation group, and 20 per cent by Russia’s JSC Channel One. The full chain runs from the Ministry of Culture and Information, through RTRK, to ATN, to Eurasia+ORT.

Kazakhstan’s Mass Media Act requires foreign television broadcasters with state participation, and their affiliates, to operate through a Kazakh legal entity in which foreign legal-person participation does not exceed 20 per cent. Channel One’s holding in Eurasia+ORT sits at that ceiling.

The direct Russian shareholder is JSC Channel One. Channel One itself has a mixed ownership structure involving Russian state entities at 34.23 per cent, state-controlled VTB at 32.89 per cent, National Media Group at 19.46 per cent and Sogaz at 13.42 per cent; the Russian Federation also retains a special golden share governance right.

The published record describes the channel as jointly owned by the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia, with the Russian share distributed among the Russian government, VTB Bank, National Media Group and Sogaz. That conflates two levels of ownership: those entities are shareholders of Channel One itself rather than of the Kazakh partnership.

Media reports in December 2023 referred to funds being provided in 2024 for the purchase of licensing rights associated with the channel, alongside plans to increase domestic content and reduce foreign content. State Media Monitor identified no announcement that Kazakhstan had purchased Channel One’s 20 per cent shareholding, and the 80/20 structure was still being described in those terms when the channel’s general director was appointed in August 2025.

State Media Monitor could not identify a publicly announced successor as of 4 September 2026. Lyazzat Tanysbay had served as general director from 18 August 2025 before being appointed Chairman of the Management Board of Khabar Agency on 31 August 2026, having previously chaired RTRK from April 2019.

Source of funding and budget

Public financing is documented, and it flows through the channel’s majority owner’s parent group. RTRK’s published state assignment for 2025 required the corporation to produce and broadcast 1,121.5 hours of news, information-analytical, social-educational and entertainment programming on First Channel Eurasia, and to supply 625 hours of licensed broadcast content from Russia’s Channel One for transmission on the same channel. Both items are financed from Kazakhstan’s republican budget under the Ministry of Culture and Information’s state information order, whose stated final objective is ensuring broadcasting coverage in order to deliver Kazakhstan’s state information policy to the population.

Eurasia+ORT files audited financial statements with Kazakhstan’s Financial Statements Depository; its 2025 auditor’s report, dated 10 February 2026, was published there in August 2026. The depository classifies Eurasia+ORT as an affiliate of an organisation with state participation. State Media Monitor could not establish from the material reviewed the monetary value specifically attributable to the First Channel Eurasia components of RTRK’s state assignment, or the current proportion of the channel’s income derived from commercial activity.

Journalists interviewed by State Media Monitor in Astana in April 2024 described the channel as heavily dependent on state financing.

Editorial independence

Kazakhstan’s Mass Media Act formally guarantees freedom of speech and prohibits censorship, and identifies objectivity, transparency and professional and ethical conduct as principles of media activity. State Media Monitor identified no First Channel Eurasia-specific statutory or governance mechanism that structurally insulates editorial decision-making from the state-controlled ownership chain.

The channel continues to carry licensed entertainment and fiction programming from Russia’s Channel One, and RTRK’s 2025 state assignment finances 625 hours of such content annually. Kazakhstan’s information ministry stated in 2023 that Russian Channel One material constituted less than 20 per cent of the schedule and did not include Russian-produced news or socio-political programmes.

Earlier assessments criticised the channel for carrying content aligned with Russian state perspectives. More recent official information indicates that licensed Russian material is now confined to entertainment, films and series rather than Russian-produced news and socio-political programming.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor could not identify a published First Channel Eurasia or Eurasia+ORT policy governing generative artificial intelligence, mandatory human verification, model provenance or audience disclosure, and could not establish the extent of adoption in production.

Classification rationale

First Channel Eurasia remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is indirectly majority-controlled by the Kazakh state. First Channel Eurasia is operated by Eurasia+ORT, 80 per cent of which is held by the Television News Agency (ATN), an entity within the state-controlled RTRK group. Russia’s Channel One holds the remaining 20 per cent. RTRK’s sole shareholder is Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture and Information. No independent governing or appointment structure separating the channel from this state-controlled ownership chain was identified.

It receives substantial state financing. RTRK’s 2025 state assignment, financed from the republican budget, specifically required 1,121.5 hours of news, analytical, social-educational and entertainment programming for First Channel Eurasia and 625 hours of licensed Russian Channel One content. The assignment describes its final objective as delivering Kazakhstan’s state information policy to the population. Eurasia+ORT publishes audited financial statements, but State Media Monitor could not establish from the material reviewed the monetary value attributable specifically to these state-assignment items or the current share of commercial income.

Its institutional structure does not provide demonstrable independence from the state. Kazakhstan’s Mass Media Act formally prohibits censorship, but no First Channel Eurasia-specific safeguard insulating editorial decisions from its state-controlled ownership chain was identified. Its indirect majority owner, RTRK, is mandated to implement state information policy, and RTRK’s board is elected by the Ministry of Culture and Information and currently chaired by the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.

August 2026